Gushue named Brier’s all-star skip

SaltWire Network

Published: Mar 10, 2017 at midnight

Updated: Oct 02, 2017 at 10:56 a.m.

Brad Gushue of Team Newfoundland and Labrador was voted the first-team all-star skip by Canadian Curling Reporters this week. He finished with a cumulative 91 per cent rating, tops among all skips, and led his team of a 9-2 record and a berth in Friday’s Page Playoff game against Manitoba’s Mike McEwen. Team NL third Mark Nichols and lead Geoff Walker were voted second-team all-stars.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue has been named the first-team all-star skip at the 2017 Tim Horton Brier in St. John’s.

The all-star teams were selected as the result of voting by Canadian Curling Reporters, but also fell in line with the positional statistical rankings. For example, Gushue finished with a cumulative 91 per cent rating, tops among all skips, putting him five per cent ahead of Manitoba’s Mike McEwen, the second team all-star.

Joining Gushue as a first-team selection were Saskatchewan third Catlin Schneider, Northern Ontario second E.J. Harden and Manitoba lead Denni Neufeld.

Newfoundland and Labrador third Mark Nichols and lead Geoff Walker were named to the second all-star team along with McEwen and Manitoba second Matt Wozniak.

Newfoundland second Brett Gallant was third in the statistical rankings among qualifying players at his position.

In addition, Quebec skip Jean-Michel Jean-Michel Ménard was named the 2017 winner of the Ross Harstone Sportsmanship Award as the result of voting by the players in this year Brier.

The honour for Ménard and the all-star teams were announced during Friday night’s Page Playoff game between Manitoba and Newfoundland, which finished first and second in the Brier round-robin standings, both with 9-2 records (Manitoba got first by winning their head-to-head matchup in the round robin).

The Brier final, to be played Sunday (8 p.m.) will see the winner of Friday’s game taking on the winner in tonight’s semifinal. The latter matchup at 8 o’clock will feature Friday’s loser and the winner of today’s game between third-place Team Canada (Kevin Koe) and fourth-place Northern Ontario (Brad Jacobs), each of whom finished with 8-3 records.